Malaria vaccine, Cancer Moonshot, sunscreen

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Okay, I know it’s unoriginal to express awe at the speed at which time passes, but like…how is it August already? Okay, instead I’ll remember Louise Glück’s “Matins.” (“Do you want to know how I spend my time?”) (“And soon summer is coming to an end, all / the leaves are turning, always the sick trees / go first”) (Bye!!)

How the world got its first malaria vaccine

Hundreds of thousands of people die from malaria every year – the vast majority of whom are children under the age of five in sub-Saharan Africa. For decades, pharmaceutical companies and researchers have struggled to create a vaccine that could protect people against it. This year they finally succeeded. Twice.

The vaccines aren’t perfect, but they are the first to target a human parasite, representing a feat of both scientific insight and fundraising ingenuity.

Read the story of STAT’s Drew Joseph’s four-decade quest for a vaccine, starring a Jewish physician-researcher whose family escaped the Nazi occupation in Austria, an American named Ripley who gave himself malaria to conduct his own experimental vaccine, and an Egyptian immigrant who simply showed up at Brooklyn College one day and introduced himself because he didn’t know how to apply to a doctoral program. (He got in.) And then read about the four main takeaways from the epic story.

British doctors’ group to review national report on trans health

The British Medical Association (which represents doctors like the AMA in the US) will do that evaluate the Cass Review, an independent report on gender-affirming care for young people in Britain, commissioned by the National Health Service and published earlier this year. Key recommendations from the Cass Review include a “more cautious” approach to social transition for trans youth and “extreme caution” when providing puberty blockers or hormones to adolescents.

Members of the BMA council voted in favor of a motion to ‘publicly criticize’ the report after doctors and researchers in several countries, including the UK and US, expressed concerns about the report’s methodology and how its recommendations can be implemented. The announcement also comes days after a British court cited the review in a decision uphold the UK ban on puberty blockers. The BMA in its motion called the report’s recommendations “unfounded” and said implementation should be suspended until the review is completed by the end of the year.

Give me! Give me! Give me! (A new sunscreen product)

You may not know it, but if you live in the US like me, your sunscreen is insufficient. For more than two decades, people in Europe, Asia and Canada have been able to buy sunscreens that protect against the full spectrum of ultraviolet rays – including ultraviolet A rays, which are known to cause cancer, and which American sunscreens often miss.

Despite the bipartisan promise to improve sun protection that lawmakers made in the Sunscreen Innovation Act of 2014, the FDA has not approved new sunscreen ingredients since the 1990s. In a First Opinion essay, dermatologist Darrell Rigel says the agency needs to do more to help people protect their skin. Read more to find out how we’re missing out.

Where the leading Harris VP candidates stand on health care

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is expected to announce her choice for vice president this week. The field is narrowing, but there are still a few names in the mix, including Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

So who are these guys, and what are their healthcare credentials? STAT’s Sarah Owermohle provides insight into how the candidates are doing on issues like health insurance, drug prices, abortion and gender-affirming care. (Read the story, but before you do, guess who called former President Trump a “son of a bitch” on the “White Dudes for Harris‘fundraising and organizational call?)

What happens to Cancer Moonshot without Biden? Plus: What happens when you vape and smoke?

We have two pieces of cancer news for you today, starting with a story from STAT’s Angus Chen about what could happen to President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative once he’s out of office. “We have a very good opportunity to continue this momentum against cancer,” Karen Knudsen, the CEO of the American Cancer Society, told Angus. “We have to.” But can the initiative disappear or be given a new name? read more van Angus about the hopes – and fears – that researchers have about the elections.

Meanwhile, a study published yesterday in the Journal of Oncology Research and Therapy found that people who both vape and smoke are four times more likely to develop lung cancer than those who smoke alone. It is the first study to provide evidence that smoking and vaping in combination is riskier than smoking alone, the authors wrote. The findings are based on a comparison of nearly 5,000 people with lung cancer and 27,000 without lung cancer in the Columbus, Ohio, area.

Vision loss and high cholesterol are now considered risk factors for dementia

Untreated vision loss and higher LDL cholesterol (also known as the bad) have been added as potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia in a report released yesterday by the Lancet Commission. They join a list of twelve other risk factors, including lack of education, physical inactivity, social isolation, excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and depression.

It’s not necessarily bad news. While there are more concerns, the findings may also suggest there is more people can do to prevent dementia, Gill Livingston, co-author of the report, told STAT’s Rohan Rajeev. Read more about why these two factors matter.

What we read

• Thirty years later, the evangelical purity movement continues to influence sex education, NPR

• The RSV season has started in Florida and will soon be in the rest of the US. Here’s an introduction: KFF Health News and Tampa Bay Times

• PBMs do not provide access to cheaper biosimilars. Reforms are needed now, STAT
• The cutting edge of CRISPR is in Nigeria, Harvard Public Health
• From the World Cup to the Olympic Games, sports medicine has been improving the treatment of injuries, STAT